Hundreds tour new Parker High School at open house

The new Parker High School sports an impressive front entrance. Hundreds of Parker alumni, parents and others in the community toured the $32 million school Sunday. (The Birmingham News/Jeff Roberts)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Hundreds of alumni and students of A.H. Parker High School and their families turned out today to an open house showcasing the school's new $32 million building, which opened earlier this month.

The visitors, many wearing dresses, ties and t-shirts in one of the school's colors, deep purple, walked through the hallways greeting old friends and peeking into brand-new classrooms equipped with digital whiteboards and other technology.

"It's really a marvelous structure," one that founder Arthur Harold Parker would have been proud of, said 90-year-old Walter B. Floyd, who attended what was then called Industrial High School under Parker, graduated in 1938 and came back in 1946 to teach WWII veterans night school. He was assisted through the halls by his son, Walter F. Floyd, who graduated in 1973 and then saw his children attend.

"This is type of legacy that instills pride in a people, in a race and in the country," said former State Sen. Fred Horn, who graduated in 1943. "It's something that people can point to and say, 'This is something I was part of.'"